Living from Work: Nailing it and Failing it

Working from home was always a dream of mine and when the pandemic hit and we were quarantined, that dream came true. Working from home took being a working parent to the next level. “Zoom meeting” became a household term and I wouldn’t just be doing my own work, but managing my kids’ work and cooking every meal and cleaning all day long.

This year has put us all to the test. While there is a light finally at the end of the tunnel, this winter is going to require us to dig deep through some dark days. Frankly, it can be hard to see the bright side of things and be happy.

If you are a manager – male or female, you are going to want to stick around to hear about the strategies, some of them are so simple, and cost nothing yet can have a huge impact on working parents.

On this session of Live.Work.Thrive, moderator Micaela Birmingham chats with successful working moms, who are both nailing it and failing it when it comes to work, parenting and life in general because isn’t that the best any of us can do? We will hear from Amy Nelson, Co-Founder and CEO, The Riveter, Sehreen Noor Ali, Co-Founder & Co-CEO Sleuth and Nithya Das, General Counsel at Olo.

Thirty-three percent of women are working full time with no form of childcare. This has doubled from the 14% that it was at pre-pandemic. Between Aug-Sept 2020 Women Aged 35-44 had the biggest decline in workforce participation. An employment gap of even one year can lead to a 39% decrease in annual earnings. Black and Latinx women, have been hit harder by COVID-19 job loss than other groups.

On the downside, have the negative effects of the Pandemic put women in a difficult position and will we have to work hard to regain what we’ve lost? With the economic downturn we are facing, many companies are scaling back and being hyper-cautious about expenditures. This might seem to be in direct conflict with the needs of working families to get more support, empathy and tangible benefits.

If we’re lucky enough to be working, we’re reaching burnout. There are some silver linings — watching my boss make a grilled cheese sandwich for her toddler while facilitating a Zoom meeting; some humbling surprises — seeing my coworker get attacked by his cat on a daily basis; and some refreshing humanity — hearing my colleagues tell me to go take care of my own child when she was pulling on my sleeve for attention. Will this experience change the way we work in the future or women’s roles in the workplace? Now that Zoom has become a way of communication, can working moms who at one opted out of work travel, be able to take on jobs that weren’t in the past?

We’re Zooming, literally and figuratively, through this, but remember to take a moment and pat yourselves on the back for doing the impossible during an ongoing pandemic. Now, go put on a nice shirt and pretend you’re not wearing pajama pants on that meeting!